Leon Trotsky: The Transitional
programme

Under the Banner of the Fourth International!

Skeptics ask: But has the moment for the creation
of the Fourth International yet arrived? It is impossible, they say, to
create an International "artificially"; it can arise only out of
great events, etc., etc. All of these objections merely show that skeptics
are no good for the building of a new International. They are good for
scarcely anything at all.

The Fourth International has already arisen out
of great events: the greatest defeats of the proletariat in history. The
cause for these defeats is to be found in the degeneration and perfidy of
the old leadership. The class struggle does not tolerate an interruption.
The Third International, following the Second, is dead for purposes of
revolution. Long live the Fourth International!

But has the time yet arrived to proclaim its
creation? ... the skeptics are not quieted down. The Fourth International,
we answer, has no need of being "proclaimed." It exists and it
fights. It is weak? Yes, its ranks are not numerous because it is still
young. They are as yet chiefly cadres. But these cadres are pledges for
the future. Outside these cadres there does not exist a single
revolutionary current on this planet really meriting the name. If our
international be still weak in numbers, it is strong in doctrine, program,
tradition, in the incomparable tempering of its cadres. Who does not
perceive this today, let him in the meantime stand aside. Tomorrow it will
become more evident.

The Fourth International, already today, is
deservedly hated by the Stalinists, Social Democrats, bourgeois liberals
and fascists. There is not and there cannot be a place for it in any of
the People's Fronts. It uncompromisingly gives battle to all political
groupings tied to the apron-strings of the bourgeoisie. Its task—the
abolition of capitalism's domination. Its aim - socialism. Its
method—the proletarian revolution.

Without inner democracy—no revolutionary
education. Without discipline — no revolutionary action. The inner
structure of the Fourth International is based on the principles of democratic
centralism: full freedom in discussion, complete unity in action.

The present crisis in human culture is the crisis
in the proletarian leadership. The advanced workers, united in the Fourth
International, show their class the way out of the crisis. They offer a
program based on international experience in the struggle of the
proletariat and of all the oppressed of the world for liberation. They
offer a spotless banner.

Workers—men and women—of all countries, place
yourselves under the banner of the Fourth International. It is the banner
of your approaching victory!